Abstract |
The application of benefit-cost analysis in the registration of chemical pesticides is developed. A comprehensive benefit-cost system, designed to be used both in the registration of new pesticides, as well as in the reregistration of existing pesticides, is described. It is a workable system, not an ideal one; that is, it reflects the current state-of-the-art and it uses the presently available data. As technology improves, more data become available, and knowledge increases, components of the system can be upgraded to reflect these changes. Nevertheless, the present system is intended to provide convenient, summary formats of the most prominent indicators of benefits and costs, so that all benefits and costs, especially those which are conceptually and empirically difficult to measure -- such as long-term human health and indirect environmental effects -- are formatted and depicted in the most comparable presentation possible. |